Happy Valentine's Day!

Susie and I aren't doing anything special today, just choral rehearsal. Whee. Instead, we had a fun and relaxing getaway over the weekend. We drove down to Costanoa for a little R&R amongst nature. On Saturday we went on a nice three hour hike through the redwoods and had a picnic lunch. It wasn't all roughing it though -- far from it, in fact. Upon our arrival, we were greeted with champagne and chocolates. We also got massages and had a pretty tasty prix fixe meal. Not bad for those Santa Cruz hippies!

We spotted some nice wildlife as well: many quail, hawks, newts, and banana slugs. And Susie got to use her cat-befriending skills on two fine specimens.

Sadly, though, our camera batteries died after two pictures. It was my fault; I hadn't charged the battery. I imagined the following exchange:

Jack Bauer: (shouting) IS THE CAMERA BATTERY CHARGED?
Me: N...n...
J.B.: IS THE CAMERA BATTERY CHARGED?
Me: N... no, sir! But the camera doesn't show the low battery sign. There's got to be plenty of charge le--
J.B.: CHARGE IT ANYWAY!
Me: What?
J.B.: CHARGE IT ANYWAY! THE TERRORISTS MIGHT HAVE DISABLED THE LOW BATTERY LIGHT!
Me: Uh... y-yes, sir.

Or maybe we've been watching too much 24.